Strange Russian or Possibly Polish Small Spoon

[Lexy-Rodgers]

Hello,
I acquired this odd spoon from a great uncle who recently passed, the problem is I have almost no clue what this spoon came from. We know my uncle traveled to Russia in the 1960's & 1970's, as part of the space program between the two countries.



And it has a monogram that doesn't even belong in our family.


The markings on the back read out to HEPЖ 8T0 440K, the monogram on the handle is Aemopug. Any help in figuring out the mystery would be appreciated greatly!

[agphile]

This seems to be from the Soviet Union. The marking on the back translates as "rustfree", i.e stainless steel, then what I assume is the factory mark and then the fixed price of 40 kopeks - it was a Soviet practice to mark with a fixed price like this. I'm afraid I can't read the Cyrillic inscription on the front of the spoon.

[agphile]

A P.S. If the inscription transliterates as something like Letorud it might be something to do with flight instruments but I am guessing here.

[DianaGaleM]

With a clearer image of the script on the front, we could probably read it. Any chance of borrowing a camera with a macro capability? I didn't realize my little digital camera had a macro capability, until I actually sat down and read the manual one day. It still amazes me that a camera the size of a pack of cigarettes can do so much.

[agphile]

My first reply was written in some haste and it might be worth adding some explanation for those with no knowledge of Russian (though mine is pretty rusty these days). The last part of the mark which had been read as 440K is actually ц40K. The ц stands for цена = price.
The inscription on the front of the spoon seems to be something like леториg (letorid) in Russian script. This looks like a portmanteau word that may be the name of an organisation or establishment. Given the background, the first three letters may well represent the Russian for “flight” but I am at a loss to make sense of the whole. We really need a more up to date Russian speaker to comment.

[DianaGaleM]

The reason I asked for a clearer image of the engraving is that I'm not entirely convinced the transcription is "Леторид (letorid)," and I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what it means without being certain how it's spelled. As this spelling, it doesn't appear in any of my dictionaries, so either this isn't the correct transcription or we're looking at a proper noun (e.g., the name of something, such as a resort or hotel). "Лето/лета" means "summer," so that might suggest a resort.

[Dad]

The reason I asked for a clearer image of the engraving is that I'm not entirely convinced the transcription is "Леторид (letorid)," and I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what it means without being certain how it's spelled. As this spelling, it doesn't appear in any of my dictionaries, so either this isn't the correct transcription or we're looking at a proper noun (e.g., the name of something, such as a resort or hotel). "Лето/лета" means "summer," so that might suggest a resort.

Here it is written "Астория" (Astoria). May be Hotel.

[DianaGaleM]

Good catch! I didn't see the horizontal bar on the first letter, and the descender on the last letter must be a scratch. And sure enough, there's an Astoria hotel in St. Petersburg.